Subtheme 5. ME dialects and the formation of Standard English.

All languages change over time and vary according to place and social setting. We can observe grammatical variation - differences in the structure of words, phrases or sentences - by comparing the way English is spoken in different places and among different social groups. One of the most common differences between dialects is the way in which past tenses are formed. Most English verbs have a simple past tense that is unmarked for person, such asplayed, went, saw, did. In other words we simply say I played, you played, he/she/it played, we played and they played and make no adjustment to the ending of the verb. This contrasts quite markedly with the way past tenses are expressed in many other European languages. The verb 'to be' on the other hand has two simple past forms in Standard English - I/he/she/it was and you/we/they were. Apart from the special case of you, the distinction is, therefore, between singular was and plural were. In some regional dialects, however, this pattern is not observed. In some parts of the country, speakers use was throughout, while speakers elsewhere use were exclusively. There are also dialects wh ere the two different forms are used for the opposite function - singular were and plural was.

We should avoid the temptation to draw misguided conclusions about what is ‘correct’ and ‘incorrect’ grammar. The northern and southern dialect patterns are more regular than Standard English, and indeed mirror the model for every other verb — consider I played, you played, I went, you went and so on. Linguists therefore make a distinction between standard and non-standard grammar, wh ere Standard English refers to what many people consider a prestigious form, mainly because people in positions of authority use it and because of its universal acceptance as the written norm. Just as speakers with a broad accent do not reflect their pronunciation in writing, most people whose speech is characterised by non-standard grammar, switch to more standard forms in writing. However, there is a great deal of difference between written and spoken language, both in terms of purpose and audience, and this is reflected in their different grammars.

Standard English is often referred to as "the standard language". It is clear, however, that Standard English is not "a language" in any meaningful sense of this term. Standard English, whatever it is, is less than a language, since it is only one variety of English among many. Standard English may be the most important variety of English, in all sorts of ways: it is the variety of English normally used in writing, especially printing; it is the variety associated with the education system in all the English-speaking countries of the world, and is therefore the variety spoken by those who are often referred to as "educated people"; and it is the variety taught to non-native learners. But most native speakers of English in the world are native speakers of some nonstandard variety of the language, and English, like other Ausbau languages (see Kloss, 1967), can be described (Chambers and Trudgill, 1997) as consisting of an autonomous standardised variety together with all the nonstandard varieties which are heteronomous with respect to it. Standard English is thus not the English language but simply one variety of it.